Local knowledge beats any tour book. Your peers can tell you how to get around town, where to eat, and what to do on weekends. Better yet, they can introduce you to their own peers so that you can start to make your own circle of local friends.
Local Roommates
CET: The Roommate Program
We launched our first roommate program in Harbin, China in 1988, and introduced roommates at our Beijing site a few years later. With this experience in hand, we expanded around the globe, pioneering roommate-style programs in countries where others had said it was impossible. Today we have an established reputation as “the roommate program,” and weave local peers into the fabric of our college and gap programs around the world.
Why connect locally?
Insider Access
Language Practice
Shared Experiences
Cultural Exchange
What does this look like across programs?
Brazil
Students in Brazil live in apartments with CET peers and local roommates. The local roommates are scholarship students from our host universities Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo and Fundação Getúlio Vargas.
Colombia
CET Colombia students share apartments with CET peers and local Colombian students from Universidad del Valle.
Florence
Students can participate in extra-curricular activities like family dinners, sports games and tournaments, and aperitivi (a happy hour with appetizers) to connect with Italian college students and other locals.
CET Florence students can also opt to live in a homestay with a Florentine family.
CET Florence students can also opt to live in a homestay with a Florentine family.
Japan
Students in Japan share their housing with CET peers and undergraduate students from Osaka Gakuin University.
Jordan
Students in Jordan live with CET peers and share a building with jiran (neighbors). The jiran are Jordanian peers that are current students or recent graduates from local universities around Amman. Jiran organize activities in their apartments or around the city to facilitate language practice, cultural learning, and overall support.
Mainland China
Students in Beijing, Shanghai, and Harbin share a dormitory with a local student from the program's host university.
Prague
Students in Prague live with CET peers and have a Czech roommate either in their apartment or in the same building. Czech roommates are local university students that organize regular "Czechtivities" to introduce Czech language, culture, or the city to CET students.
Siena
Siena students can choose to live in an apartment with CET peers and a local roommate, or a homestay with a Sienese family. Homestay students also have the opportunity to bond with their host families over shared meals.
Taiwan
Students in Taiwan share an apartment with CET peers and local students attending National Taiwan University.
Brazil
Students in Brazil live in apartments with CET peers and local roommates. The local roommates are scholarship students from our host universities Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo and Fundação Getúlio Vargas.
Florence
Students can participate in extra-curricular activities like family dinners, sports games and tournaments, and aperitivi (a happy hour with appetizers) to connect with Italian college students and other locals. CET Florence students can also opt to live in a homestay with a Florentine family.
Jordan
Jordan students live with CET peers and share a building with jiran (neighbors). The jiran are Jordanian peers who are current students or recent graduates from local universities around Amman. Jiran organize activities in their apartments or around the city to facilitate language practice, cultural learning, and overall support.
Prague
Prague students live with CET peers and have a Czech roommate either in their apartment or in the same building. Czech roommates are local university students that organize regular “Czechtivities” to introduce Czech language, culture, or the city to CET students.
Colombia
CET Colombia students share apartments with CET peers and local Colombian students from Universidad del Valle.
Japan
Students share their housing with CET peers and undergraduate students from Osaka Gakuin University.
Mainland China
Students in Beijing, Shanghai, and Harbin share a dormitory with a local student from the program’s host university.
Siena
Siena students can choose to live in an apartment with CET peers and a local roommate, or a homestay with a Sienese family. Homestay students also have the opportunity to bond with their host families over shared meals.
Taiwan
Burst the Bubble
At its best, study abroad is about exploring and embracing the local culture—immersing yourself to the point that you’re living like a local. But as anyone who has studied abroad will tell you, breaking out of the foreigner “bubble” is harder than it looks. It’s easy to find yourself spending all of your time with other study abroad students, enjoying the comfort of a shared language and culture.
Our advice for bursting the bubble? Make local friends. All you need is a foot in the door to the local community. At CET, this step is built directly into the program. In almost every college and gap program we operate, we set you up with local connections from the start of your term abroad. The local roommates and neighbors are your key to the city, the language, and the culture. And often times, they’re also a good friend.